Trees

MongoDB lends itself quite well to storing hierarchical data. This chapter will demonstrate some examples!

Full Tree in Single Document

1
<?php

/** @Document */
class BlogPost
{
    /** @Id */
    private $id;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $title;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $body;

    /** @EmbedMany(targetDocument="Comment") */
    private $comments = array();

    // ...
}

/** @EmbeddedDocument */
class Comment
{
    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $by;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $text;

    /** @EmbedMany(targetDocument="Comment") */
    private $replies = array();

    // ...
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34

Retrieve a blog post and only select the first 10 comments:

1
<?php

$post = $dm->createQueryBuilder('BlogPost')
    ->selectSlice('replies', 0, 10)
    ->getQuery()
    ->getSingleResult();

$replies = $post->getReplies();
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

You can read more about this pattern on the MongoDB documentation page "Trees in MongoDB" in the Full Tree in Single Document section.

Parent Reference

1
<?php

/** @Document */
class Category
{
    /** @Id */
    private $id;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @ReferenceOne(targetDocument="Category")
     * @Index
     */
    private $parent;

    // ...
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Query for children by a specific parent id:

1
<?php

$children = $dm->createQueryBuilder('Category')
    ->field('parent.id')->equals('theid')
    ->getQuery()
    ->execute();
2
3
4
5
6

You can read more about this pattern on the MongoDB documentation page "Trees in MongoDB" in the Parent Links section.

Child Reference

1
<?php

/** @Document */
class Category
{
    /** @Id */
    private $id;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $name;

    /**
     * @ReferenceMany(targetDocument="Category")
     * @Index
     */
    private $children = array();

    // ...
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Query for immediate children of a category:

1
<?php

$category = $dm->createQueryBuilder('Category')
    ->field('id')->equals('theid')
    ->getQuery()
    ->getSingleResult();

$children = $category->getChildren();
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Query for immediate parent of a category:

1
<?php

$parent = $dm->createQueryBuilder('Category')
    ->field('children.id')->equals('theid')
    ->getQuery()
    ->getSingleResult();
2
3
4
5
6

You can read more about this pattern on the MongoDB documentation page "Trees in MongoDB" in the Child Links section.

Array of Ancestors

1
<?php

/** @MappedSuperclass */
class BaseCategory
{
    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $name;

    // ...
}

/** @Document */
class Category extends BaseCategory
{
    /** @Id */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @ReferenceMany(targetDocument="Category")
     * @Index
     */
    private $ancestors = array();

    /**
     * @ReferenceOne(targetDocument="Category")
     * @Index
     */
    private $parent;

    // ...
}

/** @EmbeddedDocument */
class SubCategory extends BaseCategory
{
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

Query for all descendants of a category:

1
<?php

$categories = $dm->createQueryBuilder('Category')
    ->field('ancestors.id')->equals('theid')
    ->getQuery()
    ->execute();
2
3
4
5
6

Query for all ancestors of a category:

1
<?php

$category = $dm->createQuery('Category')
    ->field('id')->equals('theid')
    ->getQuery()
    ->getSingleResult();

$ancestors = $category->getAncestors();
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

You can read more about this pattern on the MongoDB documentation page "Trees in MongoDB" in the Array of Ancestors section.

Materialized Paths

1
<?php

/** @Document */
class Category
{
    /** @Id */
    private $id;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $name;

    /** @Field(type="string") */
    private $path;

    // ...
}
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Query for the entire tree:

1
<?php

$categories = $dm->createQuery('Category')
    ->sort('path', 'asc')
    ->getQuery()
    ->execute();
2
3
4
5
6

Query for the node 'b' and all its descendants:

1
<?php
$categories = $dm->createQuery('Category')
    ->field('path')->equals('/^a,b,/')
    ->getQuery()
    ->execute();
2
3
4
5

You can read more about this pattern on the MongoDB documentation page "Trees in MongoDB" in the Materialized Paths (Full Path in Each Node) section.